ALNWICK AND WARKWORTH

obstinate battle that was ever fought... for the English and
Scots are excellent men-at-arms and never spare each other
when they meet in battle, nor is there any check to their
courage as long as their weapons last'. The Earl of Douglas,
who had c advanced like another Hector, thinking to conquer
the field by his own prowess', was borne to the ground, still
fighting desperately, with three spear wounds. He bade his
kinsman, Sir John Sinclair, raise his banner and continue
to shout, * Douglas,' lest the enemy should know of his death.
In another part of the field Sir Ralph Percy, ' so weakened by
loss of blood that he had scarcely power to avow himself to be
Sir Ralph Percy', was taken prisoner. At length Hotspur him-
self was forced to yield after a desperate fight with Sir Hugh
Montgomery. In the ballad, Montgomery calls on Percy to
yield to the c bracken bush ', behind which lay the dead body
of Douglas. And so, with very heavy losses on the English side,
the battle ended with victory to the Scots.

This fray was fought at Otterburne
Between the night and the day
Earl Douglas was buried at the bracken bush
And the Percy led captive away.

The Perries' revenge for Otterburn was the Battle of Homil-
don Hill in 1402. There the Scots, returning from a foray to
Newcastle, found their way barred by Hotspur with a consider-
able force of Welsh archers. This battle was an archers'
victory. Eight hundred Scots were killed on the field of battle,
five hundred were drowned in the Tweed and Lord Archibald

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